Menu

Post navigation

Looking for a little back-to-school inspiration for the students in your life? We combed through Pinterest for the best inspirational pins to get them back in the school spirit. (And they’re pretty inspirational for non-students too.)

1. Study Like Granger

Hermione Granger’s incredible. Remember how in the third book she time travelled to take more than one class at a time? Classic Granger.

2. Study While Others Sleep

You know how everyone loves to complain they’re too busy to get things done? It’s not true. Look at how much time you spend on social media, TV, video games and other time wasters. Then cut that down. Or, better yet, eliminate it entirely. You’ll get more done, and you’ll feel better. Promise.

3. How I Study

If only we’d followed this poster, college would have been a cinch!

4. The More That You Read

Dr. Seuss was a genius. Hang this poster in your favourite study area, slip into your comfiest clothes and grab a coffee. Not only will you do well on your next term paper—you’ll have fun along the way!

5. Hustle

Hustle is underrated. When you have a question, ask the teacher. When you’ve finished writing a paper, read it out loud. Be the first one to arrive for group project meets—and the last to leave. It’s worth it.

So what are you waiting for? Go get your inspiration on. Graduation is just around the corner!

If it’s important enough to put a label on it, that label better stay stuck under any circumstances: You don’t want to find scratched-out fuzz where your “Hazardous Material” label used to be and the lid on the floor. That’ll never happen if you start smart, and stick with professional quality TZe technical tape from Brother.

Freaking out over tax time? Are you super organized, or did you leave it until the last minute? Check out these taxerrific tips to take the stress out of the yearly accounting ritual we all love to hate.

Today, every office worker expects information at their fingertips—whether they’re at work, home or on the road. Your employees and your clients expect answers when they want, how they want, and where they want.

Regardless of the size or scope of your business, your customers expect to have a relationship with you online. That’s why you need a digital marketing strategy. To help you get started—or improve the online presence you already have—Brother Canada is offering this concise three-part series.

Imitation, they say, is the best form of flattery, but most of the time, the copy is a lower quality substitute for the real thing. Sometimes it makes sense to go for the copy—try getting Banksy to spray-paint your living room—but for most things, we’re better off with the original. In 2015, Brother Printers and All-in-Ones nabbed PCMag’s Reader’s Choice Award, for the seventh year in a row. We got the highest scores in “overall satisfaction”, “satisfaction with reliability”, and “likelihood to recommend.”

Regardless of the size or scope of your business, your customers expect to have a relationship with you online. That’s why you need a digital marketing strategy. To help you get started—or improve the online presence you already have—Brother Canada is offering this concise three-part series.

Provide your customers the content they need through this growing social media platform

There’s so much white noise out there. So how do you pierce it, to get your business’ message to consumers who crave it?

The answer? Quick, snackable bites of visual content. With an estimated 2.6 billion images being shared daily, these hot items are grabbing more of our fragmented attention every second. And one of the best channels to get them to your people is Pinterest.

With this blog, we’ll help get you started using this highly engaging tool for your customers.

1. Create a space for dreaming

Just five years old, Pinterest is a strong and still growing platform for creating, curating and sharing visual content. Ahalogy, a marketing firm specialized in teaching brands how to leverage Pinterest, calls it, “a space for dreaming and discovery.” It attracts aspirational users planning specific types of projects—from decorating a nursery to building a treehouse.

Pinterest is still largely dominated by female users (78% in Canada). But men are quickly catching up. The most active users, or “Pinners,” visit the site at least once a day. Popular categories include: Food & Drink, Health & Wellness, Fashion, Beauty, Home, DIY & Crafts, Family, Pets, Weddings, Travel, Automotive, Technology and Finance.

2. Driving engagement

You can use Pinterest as an individual to share your passion for home brew or gardening, but if you want to drive engagement with your business and attract more customers, you need a business account. Business accounts get added functionality from Rich Pins, which offer specific embedded information for apps, places, articles, products, recipes, movies and more—as well as analytics, to help you understand how your content is doing.

3. Create content that sticks

Bob Gilbreath, Co-Founder and CEO at Ahalogy, is a well-respected thought leader on Pinterest. He stresses the importance of learning by doing when you first get started.

“With Pinterest you must jump in and start getting real-world feedback to understand what works and what doesn’t,” he says. “As with any serious marketing effort, you first need to set your Pinterest business strategy.” Gilbraith recommends creating a few Pinboards with quality content you think will resonate with your target audience. Then watch, measure and learn from how they’re using it.

“Double down on the content that seems to stick,” Gilbreath adds. “But keep in mind that Pinterest users are all about long-term planning. So, converting casual users to customers can take longer than on other social media platforms.”

4. Be a great storyteller

If you’re a retailer, think about how and why your customers use your products. Adam Kmiec, Senior Director, Mobile, Social, Content & Performance Marketing at Walgreens, is both a sought after speaker and an outspoken digital marketing strategist.

“We were one of the very early Pinterest adopters,” says Kmiec. “Being on the platform since the beginning has helped us understand what works, what doesn’t and how to make sure we’re always putting our customers first.”

Kmiec says he develops content as if he’s making a film—with a compelling narrative and the right story for his customers. “Pinterest is all about providing helpful tutorials and step-by-step guides that inspire our customers and provide them with the tools they need to take action.”

“Our Pinboards aren’t about selling products—although of course they can lead to that,” he adds. “They’re a reflection of the aesthetic our audience wants, how it makes them feel, and how they can achieve that aesthetic with our help.”

5. Develop your pictorial vocabulary

The look and feel of your pins matters more than with other social media content. Colour densities, quality of photography, choice of fonts, and even the orientation of your image files, can contribute to how well your Pins fare in terms of extending their reach through sharing, or “Repins.”

Brendan Lowry, Marketing Director at Curalate, likens Pinterest to learning a new language. “Whatever business you’re in today, you need to realize that consumers are now speaking with pictures, not words,” says Brendan. “Test the Pins you post and study the analytics to learn which images fare better with your specific audiences.”

Putting a pin in it

Learning how to use more—and better performing—visuals online is a critical tool for driving higher rates of engagement. Whether you sell scarves or wedding photography, hardware or healthy food, Pinterest is an important platform for visual content and worth investing your time and effort. Providing your followers with actionable, well-made, visually appealing Pins about content that matters to them will ensure you’re there to reap the rewards for cultivating their path from discovery to purchase—to customer-for-life!

Did you know that regularly replacing your Brother laser machine’s drum unit can extend its life, improve print quality, and put off the purchase of a new machine for years and years?

Check out our handy new guide to learn everything you need to know about Brother drum units, your new favourite thing in the world!

So, what’s a Brother drum unit anyway?

Brother laser machines have two gizmos—or consumables—that need occasional replacing: the toner cartridge and the drum. The toner cartridge contains powder (or toner) used for creating words and images on paper. The drum, or “organic photo conductor” is the heart of the machine: it takes the toner and gets it onto the page. (Colour laser machines have two additional replaceable gizmos, the belt and waste toner pack, but we won’t worry about those for now.)

Is the Brother drum a member of the percussion group of musical instruments (also known as a membranophone)?

You’re banging on the wrong drum. (But you’re our kind of cheeky.)

How do I know when to replace a drum?

Drums get worn out with use. It’s a fact of life. How do you know when to replace them? Simple. Most Brother printers will display a “Replace Drum Soon” message giving you ample time to buy a new one. When a drum unit reaches the end of its life, the message will change to, “Drum Life End.” You won’t be able to continue printing until it’s been replaced and reset. One big advantage with Brother machines is that the drum and toner are separate. So you can replace only the gizmo you need to.

How do I change it?

The instructions on resetting a drum vary from one model to the next, but you can find the reset instructions for your machine on our Solutions website. Just look up your model and check out the FAQs for “Replace Drum.”

Where do I get a drum?

Good question! You can buy them directly off our site or from your favourite office supplies store. Or get in touch with our highly trained, Montreal-based Canadian Consumer Sales & Satisfaction agents at Brother.ca/support. They’re always ready to help.

For best performance, use only Genuine Brother drums and toner cartridges. Printing with a third-party drum or toner can reduce not only the print quality, but also the quality and life of the printer itself. You can also lose warranty coverage for problems caused by third-party drums or toner cartridges.

Our environmental commitment

Brother is deeply committed to the environment. We offer printers with highly compact bodies, and all-in-ones that print, fax, copy and scan. (The only thing they won’t do is make your coffee!) When creating new products, we always consider our environment and aim to reduce power consumption and save paper. Our laser all-in-ones offer several eco-conscious features like energy conservation mode, duplex (2-sided) printing, and Toner Saving Mode.

So, when you get that “Replace drum soon” message, don’t panic. It’s easy to buy and install a new one. And you’ll keep your machine in tip-top shape for years to come—while saving money and the environment!